Today: Jogging from Playa Del Rey to Marina Del Rey. Total: a little over 3.5 miles.
also brought the jumprope and did some interval sets every 10 min. Did 5 pull-ups on the bars on Via Marina.

Rain yesterday kept me inside so I did as many sit-ups as I could do in the living room. Abs were on fire! haha

While its been nearly two months since my Crossfit journey began, I have yet to fully take advantage of journaling on the fitness forums. So in my attempt to follow through with said goals, I’m back and Im going to try my best to keep putting entries in as needed.

During the past several weeks, I’ve been learning so much. Its so nice to be surrounded by such supportive athletes from all backgrounds. While most of the time I feel like I’m the weakest, slowest, least-coordinated, etc etc, I have had small moments where I’ve overcome personal barriers. I never would have pushed myself this hard on my own. Im looking forward to the continued challenges, and I know if I follow through Ill reach my goals.

I have been doing well with my diet too - my cart at Trader Joe’s has been filled with lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, carrot, peppers, onions, apples, grapefruit, bananas, turkey jerky, chicken breast, salmon, almonds and lots of random items within the paleo diet. I’ve still be dealing with the sugar cravings, but holding out is the best thing for me. I’ve been allowing myself one cheat meal a week. Changing my diet this drastically gives me a small insight into what it must be like to quit cigarettes. Im so thankful I never was a smoker, but I know now that being a fast food fanatic sure comes in as a quick second in the category of malignant habits. Never again I say!

Im happy to report I’ve dropped a nice 8 pounds since joining. Still have about 35 left to reach my goal weight which Im aiming for spring or summer of next year. Man its going to be great to get that new pair of jeans! (and size them up with the ones I had 4 years ago when I was 300lbs+!!!) I think a Jared commercial impression will be called for at that time

Its been a couple days since entering in my journal so here’s my attempt at catching up a bit. Had a fun gig last night with my band at Molly Malone’s. This weekend should be cool, just teaching a few guitar lessons and gigging in Long Beach on Sunday. Gonna practice a bunch and jog a bunch too

As for my workouts during the last part of the week - Wednesday was very difficult for me, but with Andy’s help, I was able to at least get the jist of the workout. Thanks andy! :-D

21 Snatch
2 Rope Climb

So I worked on my snatch form, 21 times, and then tried to at least jump on the rope a few times. I rotated between all of this for a few sets up to about 20 minutes. Didn’t really amount to the workout per-se, but as Andy pointed out often Crossfit workouts will be more skill based and need finer attention.

I have a weird knee problem that was sort of fixed with orthroscopy in High School, and while it doesn’t cause me much pain its a bit discomforting and my RT knee “clicks” in and out of place from time to time. As a result, I have to be careful any time im jumping or putting too much stress on my right leg. I’ve found box jumps, jump rope, and the rope climb to all sort of annoy my injury. . .

Thursday - I just did a brisk walk around the neighborhood a few times

Today - Jogging and jumprope practice. Im also going to do some towel pull ups on the bar in the park.

Diet wise I did great this week. Last night after the gig I splurged big time and had some in-n-out with the buddies. . .  But this is about the only thing off my paleo diet I’ve ate in about 10 days now. I’ve been feeling great and dropped a couple pounds too. It felt good to loosen up for a minute and feel like I could eat whatever. Back on the horse today and 190 here I come (not to mention, a rope climb or two

Today - feeling great after a nice weekend with some running. My diet was great this weekend too, so that helped to boost my energy.. . . . just in time for another crossfit workout.

This one especially felt great overall, because not only could I feel my jelly-belly jiggle all the way around the block, but I also discovered what it felt like to feel my entire brething apparatus inside my chest. I guess it takes pushing yourself to the end to really get to know your body. :-D “Gee I didn’t even know I had that” - I think this will be a common phrase upon completing my crossfit routines.

Here’s my times. Not too bad - at least Im sorta close to most everyone.

400m run - 1:33
2 min rest
800m run - 4:04
4 min rest
1,600m run - 9:31
8 min rest
800m run - 4:39
4 min rest
400m run - 1:51

This took me back to high school when I remember how much I dreaded running in PE. Most everyone would crack up to see me waddle around the track, being I was the fat kid. . . I wonder if any of those guys are crossfitting these days. . . doubt it. I can’t wait to show them pictures on Facebook of me doing this stuff The best revenge is to live well!!! right?!?! So live well by putting yourself through agony!

Today: 5K part ii. Interval sets of 50 single-unders, and pushups. Trying to gear up for week two of crossfit! Had an awesome weekend with the diet, Im feeling amazing. See you all soon! JS

Im so excited to have begun my journey with Crossfit. After much success getting in better shape over the past few years, I had sorta grown flat on my regular gym routine. I hadn’t been seeing the same results from my workouts, and I seemed to plateau. My friend turned me onto Crossfit, and I happy to have found a community of folks who seem dedicated toward living a lifestyle around their health!! This is just where I belong!

I had a great week with my first couple of workouts. After my intro session with Andy on Tuesday, I came in Weds. Groundhogs Annie, I was able to complete the workout doing single-unders and 50 situps 4 1/2 times in 20 min.  I learned what its like to workout on the edge - and Im certain I haven’t been there before. . . until this week.

Thursday: Overhead squats 25/15 - squats - 50. I completed three sets in 12:28. Looking back, I know I probably had even more sets in me.

Friday - LEGS were on FIRE!

Today: 5K Run, and I practiced my jumprope - Im about as elegant as a bull in a china closet with my jumprope. . . . got some work to do there.

One of the challenges I face right now is figuring out how to scale some of the workouts Im not familiar doing. I have a big difficulty with Pull-ups and Chin-Ups, so Im going to gauge my ability of just trying to get that one rep in there. Im going easy on the weights as its been a few months since I’ve been training with weights.

I attached two photos of me just for the heck of it. One, is my before picture in March 2005 - I was about 290 lbs. The second is an after picture of me at about 220 in 2006. Weight wise, im about 225 right now and my goal is to get to 190.

Thanks everyone for being so encouraging to me and Ill see you guys at the finish line!